Dodgers racing to complete 'ambitious' $100M renovation

The area around the first-base dugout at Dodger Stadium has been torn out and is being rebuilt, just one of the many changes being implemented during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Construction is under way at Dodger Stadium, shown here as seen from the press box. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The area around the third base dugout at Dodger Stadium has been torn out and is being rebuilt during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Construction workers clear out dirt behind home plate on the third-base side as enhancements are being made to the Dodger Stadium during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Construction workers walk by home plate and the pitchers mound at Dodger Stadium with construction equipment behind them as enhancements are being made to the baseball stadium during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The area around the first base dugout at Dodger Stadium has been torn out and is being rebuilt during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The fan section around right field is among the areas being rebuilt as as enhancements are being made to the Dodger Stadium during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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A Universal Studios sign sits on the ground after being taken down during renovations being made during the offseason. Sponsorship signs for the upcoming season are not yet set in stone. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Construction is still under way as enhancements to Dodger Stadium are being made during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The view of Dodger Stadium from the press box shows construction under way as enhancements are being made during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The area around the first-base dugout at Dodger Stadium has been torn out and is being rebuilt during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Construction workers look out from left field as enhancements are being made to the Dodger Stadium during the offseason. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten talks about the enhancements being made to Dodger Stadium during the offseason at a press conference Tuesday at the ballpark. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten talks about the enhancements being made to Dodger Stadium during the offseason with Janet Marie Smith, Senior VP of Planning and Development, left, at a press conference at the ballpark Tuesday. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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Janet Marie Smith, Senior VP of Planning and Development, talks about the enhancements being made to Dodger Stadium during the offseason STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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An artist rendering of what the completed renovations to Dodger Stadium will look like. ARTIST RENDERING, FOR THE REGISTER

LOS ANGELES – Since new owners took over eight months ago, the Dodgers have spent a lot of money on some earth-shaking moves they hope will pay off on the field.

At the same time, they are also spending money — and moving some earth — to improve 51-year-old Dodger Stadium for fans and players alike. A $100 million renovation project — a figure Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten said is close enough for now "but I don't have the final bills yet" — is ongoing at Major League Baseball's third-oldest facility. Work is being done on every level of the stadium and even underground, where the infrastructure was "1962 vintage and not in a good way," as Dodgers senior vice president of planning and development Janet Marie Smith put it during a news conference Tuesday detailing the improvements.

"This is a very ambitious project we're undertaking," Kasten said as construction equipment ringed the field and workers moved among projects throughout the facility. "We're doing about 100 things and that left out another 100 things we want to do because we only had the 24, 25 weeks (of the offseason) to get it all done by opening day.

"We do think we're going to get done by opening day but it's going to be a scramble. Everything we need to hold a game and accommodate 56,000 fans will get done though some of the work might leak into that first homestand. ... We might ask fans for a little bit of patience as we learn how to use these new toys."

Those "new toys" will include some highly visible changes — including new video boards above the left- and right-field pavilions (22 percent larger with 66 percent more image area while returning both to the historic hexagonal shape from Dodger Stadium's earlier incarnations), wider concourses and expanded entrance "plazas" — as well as some invisible upgrades involving cell phone transformers and a state-of-the-art WiFi network.

Other upgrades to the "fan experience" include renovated and increased restrooms (with additional fixtures for both men and women), expanded wheelchair-accessible seating and a new sound system. Standing-room bullpen overlook areas will be added in the outfield as well as play areas for kids on both sides of the stadium including life-sized bobbleheads greeting fans entering the reserved level on the third base side and oversized replicas of the Dodgers' six World Series rings on the first base side.

"I had the benefit of being in L.A. during the '80s and Dodger Stadium was my home stadium," said Smith, who has worked on projects at Baltimore's Camden Yards, Boston's Fenway Park and Atlanta's Turner Field. "In many ways, (this renovation project) is coming home to polish the jewel I fell in love with to begin with."

The changes will only modestly affect the playing field. An additional 6 feet of foul territory will be created by adjustments to the lower level seating area, adjustments needed to address sightline issues that followed renovations in 2005-06.

Kasten said an attempt was made to address as many items on a "wish list" assembled from fans and media feedback as possible.

But nowhere were upgrades needed more than in the clubhouses, among the most cramped and outdated in baseball. The lower level of stadium seating has been removed in order to allow construction workers to rebuild those facilities. The home clubhouse will be "virtually doubled in size," according to Smith, with a new expanded weight room and batting cages available to Dodger players and coaches. The visitors clubhouse will not be expanded but the opposing team will now have its own batting cage and weight room. Both teams had been sharing one cage and weight room, making it necessary for visiting players to pass through the hallway outside the home clubhouse before or after games to access the facilities.

"As a guy who's running the team, I knew it was important for my players," Kasten said of the long-overdue upgrades. "Coming in here as the visiting team (during his days working with Atlanta and Washington), I would just marvel at great, historic, magnificent Dodger Stadium — with those absolutely terrible clubhouses and the fact that we had to walk through the home team's clubhouse to share the same weight room or batting cage. And keep in mind, this is after the game when, one side or the other, someone was in a bad mood."

Held back in part by its aging facilities, Dodger Stadium has not held an All-Star Game since 1980 (Angel Stadium has had two in the time since then). Kasten is optimistic the renovation project will make the stadium a much more attractive option to host that event.

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